


I Have A Few

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [546]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: F/M, rarepairathon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 21:55:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14174190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: Anonymous askedNot really a rarepair but... Can we have some John and Ridley and perhaps the beach...? Please?





	I Have A Few

“Do you ever…” Ridley frowned at the distance hive of activity as her voice trailed off.

Next to her, John stretched his legs out off the edge of her picnic rug.  He’s kicked off his shoes, and Ridley can’t stop glancing down.  Somehow, his bare toes knock years off him, give her a taste of the boy he was being the responsibilities locked together around him like a suit of armour.  “Do I ever what?”

She shrugged, shifting to brace her hands behind her, feeling the sharp stubbly grass even through the blanket.  “Paths not taken, I guess.”

His laugh is soft, stolen away almost instantly on the wind.  “Do I regret agreeing to man Five, to spinning around one spot while everyone else boldly goes?”

She feels embarrassed to be caught out in her artless question.  “Something like that.”  She’s still on the long-list, she knows, though she’s been there so long it’s become just another part of the background chorus of her life.  Bills need to be paid, she needs to make a dentist’s appointment, she could be called up for an interplanetary mission.  Just one of those things

John thinks, and she’s learn to take the compliment he pays her by considering her questions thoughtfully.  John is no longer on the shortlist, officially no longer at ISA or anywhere else, though they all extend him professional courtesies where they can.  She can’t imagine what it was like, to resign to the private sector only to be told you were next on the list.  “I like my job,” he starts at last, the words almost lost as the observation chopper swoops overhead.  “I like what we do. I make a difference.”  

She blinks as his fingers crawl across hers and settle.  “But…?”

“However..” he continues with a pointedly sidewards glance.  “Yeah.  Sometimes I do wonder what ifs.  Doesn’t everyone?”

She does.  She wonders what if she didn’t get a scholarship, didn’t sign up, didn’t learn to fly, then to soar.  She wishes that poor other version of her well, sometimes.  “But do you have regrets?”  They’ve come this far, she may as well dive all the way down.

His fingers twitch slightly.  “Yeah,” he admits softly, and she wonders if she’s the first to hear him say this.  “I have regrets. Many, many regrets.”

Her mouth is dry as, across the waters, the engine catches and the first manned mission to the Jovian system tears itself free of Earth and climbs into the stars and history.

John never lets go of her hand.  She can feel the tiniest tremor, even over the boom of the rocket.

She keeps her eyes on the contrail and doesn’t let go.


End file.
